VEGAN FAMILY FRIENDLY RECIPES

St. Patrick’s Creamy Spinach & Nutmeg Soup

This St. Patrick’s Creamy Spinach & Nutmeg soup is not only green to Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. It’s green with beautiful, healthy spinach and packed with spices to make this little bowl a real treasure for all the hungry Leprechauns that might get hungry on their golden pot hunt!

Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day is not something I grew up with in Croatia. It just wasn’t in our customs and when it comes to religion, Croats do celebrate saints but St. Patrick wasn’t one of them. But, since saints have their own ways, St. Patrick thought of his own one and came to Croatia with beer. Yup! And what else? 😉

Some 20 years ago pubs started popping opened in Croatia. Yes, we had places to hang out and drink (booze or not) and everything else, but no pubs as such. But. Some smart fellows thought that it would be a great idea to introduce this new form of hangout place with lots of different beers to chose at this new, warm, cosy and interesting social “platform” to Croats. And boy we loved it!

As my friends and I did, not so much because of the beer but because it was new, it was kind of “exotic”, they played great music and often brought great bands to play Irish music. It was completely different interior that we were used to seeing in restaurants and such places and of course, we were young, restless, always looking for something new and the pub was always a great place to be as opposed to our usual, “coffee drinking” spots.

Yup, there is something in that “pub atmosphere”. Its cosiness and warmth make you feel at home.

I’ve never been to Ireland. With not so much happiness I must say that many, many of my friends and people from my birth town Osijek and Slavonia and Baranya area went there. In the last few years, thousands of them. And not because they went sightseeing but because of the bad economy in that part of Croatia. People had to go. Looking for work, for a better life, better perspective for their children. And thanks to Ireland, they found it.

There is a sad joke that Croats say. “Dublin is the capital of Slavonia”. Most of them are in Dublin, Cork, Limerick or Galway. Thousands of Croats went to Germany as well, as we say here, “With my belly following the bread”.

So this is not so happy post. At all. I wish I could talk happy things like leprechauns and golden coins. Rainbows, pots of gold and the Shamrock. When someone says Ireland, I think of all that rich, fruitful soil on Slavonian and Baranya fields that stands still, empty, abandoned. I remember golden wheat and corn fields, speckled with bright red poppy flowers, spreading endlessly, beyond the horizon. Sunflower heads that smiled at us and nodded in content and accomplishment. Bright, almost fluorescent yellow rapeseed flowers that were sometimes so bright in the sun that it was hard to look at.

All of it, empty. Fields, vineyards, orchards. And getting emptier every day.

I guess it’s good that St. Patrick came to Croatia. Not only because thousands of people find their way and a better life under his wing. But because it’s about time that all the mean snakes of bad economy and poor decisions be banished from that God blessed fields of Slavonia.

With that said, it’s time to go back to St. Patrick’s Creamy Spinach Soup.

Because that’s what I’ve started with in the first place, but my mind took me elsewhere. We all connect “things with other things”. So what do you think of first when someone says, St. Patrick’s Day? I really do hope it’s something much more appealing and happier than mine association was. Do you think of gold? Going out for a perfect pint of beer with your friends? Finding your special Shamrock in mundane that is so easily transformed into festive and rich?

Have a nice St. Patrick’s Day, dear everyone, may it bring you only the best, worth its weight in gold.

This St. Patrick’s Creamy Spinach & Nutmeg Soup is really easy to make. It’s packed with health-boosting spinach we were always told to eat more, right? So what is the better way of introducing more of this great leafy green veggie, low in calories but rich with fibres, vitamins A, C and K1, Folic acid, Calcium and Iron, than in a piping hot, warm and hearty bowl of soup!

This Creamy Spinach & Nutmeg soup is not only green to Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. It’s green with beautiful, healthy spinach and packed with spices to make this little bowl a real treasure for all the hungry Leprechauns that might get hungry on their golden pot hunt!

Servings: 2

Author: Mari from Nuts and Walnuts

Ingredients

3potatoes, medium sized

1carrot

1cupcooked or frozen spinach (about 2 times more if using fresh)

1tbspoil

water

salt, pepper to taste

1/2tspground nutmeg

seeds for sprinkling

1clovegarlic, minced

1tspfresh or pickled ginger, minced (optional)

Instructions

Prepare the veggies. Peel and cube potatoes. Peel and julienne the carrot. Take the spinach out of the freezer a little ahead or you don't have to, but it'll reduce the time of cooking till it's thawed. If you have fresh spinach, submerge it in the boiling water for a min or two, then drain and set aside.

Heat some oil in the cooking pot and cook carrot on low heat for a few mins or till it lets its nice, orange colour in the oil. Stir all the time so it doesn't burn. Ad 1 tsp of salt.

Add potatoes and garlic (and ginger, if using) and enough water to cover it, not much more or your soup will be to thin. You can always add more if needed.

Add some pepper and nutmeg. Stir well, cover and cook for ca. 25 mins or till the veggies are done. Check the water during cooking and stir a bit, so it doesn't stick to the bottom.

Add the spinach. Mind that frozen spinach will add more water to the soup. Stir carefully on low heat till it's all nicely thawed, warmed up and combined. If using fresh spinach, just put it in the pot and cook for a nice min or two.

When cooked, take the pot of off the heat and blend the soup with immersion blender or in the food processor till it's all nice and creamy to your taste. Check the seasonings. If you feel the soup is too thick, put it back on the heat, add more water and bring to a boil.

3 comments

What a lovely soup… but a sad story. I’m sorry that so many people have left your homeland, not least because having lived in Croatia, I know how awesomely beautiful it is.

Rijeka is one of my favourite cities in the world, and the Croatian countryside is breathtaking!

It’s such a shame when people have to leave their homes, and travel overseas in search of work. Not so much perhaps, for the people doing the leaving but for those left behind, and for the economy in general. As you point out, if everyone leaves, who is left to work the land, and grow the food? I guess though, we can’t expect people to stand still and struggle. If only the opportunities were there, closer to home. xx

Yes, Rijeka is a pretty city 🙂 I would love to show you homeland to you someday!

I’m also very sorry for people having to go abroad in search of work. But at least, they found a friendly place that appreciates work and knowledge. And hoping it won’t last forever. As they say, any misery has its days. And not a day more.